Morgan Blackhand

Code Name: The Hammer

“I can’t remember how many people I’ve killed. Sometimes I think I’ll just change my name to Clint Eastwood.”

A war-won veteran of the Second Central American Caonflict, Morgan Blackhand first became a Solo by accident, not design. Returning home in 2009 to the ruins of his native Brooklyn, the hulking cybergrunt found himself protecting his next door neighbour from an abusive and violent ex-husband. The incident ended with Morgan killing the homicidal maniac and earning a local rep as a protector of the weak

Morgan’s good guy image lasted until a dustdown with a marauding BoosterLord gained him the attention of a Militech recruiter. To Morgan’s pragmatic mind, working as a corporate ‘solo" wasn’t much different than being in the service: the guys Upstairs told you where to go and who to protect (or shoot). By 2013, Blackhand was known throughout the brotherhood of solos as a professional equal to the best Europe could offer; it was during this time that he adopted the black turtleneck, suit, trench-coat, and close-cropped hair that became his trademarks.

In time, Blackhand graduated from bodyguard and extraction work, to tactical operations and strategic threat management. Although his abilities in these areas were exceptional, his reputation as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense boss willing to pick up a Minami and join his ops in the field earned him an even wider reputation (“I should have been an officer in the Army,” Blackhand often jokes).

In 2020, Morgan Blackhand decided he could use a vacation. Resigning from Militech, he began free-lancing, taking only the jobs that interested him. His choices ranged from the profitable (his extraction of multimillion dollar rocker Allana Devon from DMS to Fugitsu World Entertainment is one stellar example), to the quixotic. Many an out-of-luck victim threatened by a corporate ops-team or boosterlord suddenly found themselves with a very large, very dangerous benefactor who saved their kibble and then slipped silently into the night like a cybered-up Lone Ranger. To Morgan’s world-view, it was only payback for the various black ops and assassinations he’d run over a long and checkered career.

Then came the Carbon Plague and the advent of the Incorporated States. At first, Morgan was suspicious of the ISA’s grandiose plans for revitalizing America; he’d free-lanced for David Whindam and knew firsthand what a snake he was. As BuReloc and CorpSec began entrenched as a part of everyday life, Blackhand carefully began to plan a back door for himself, moving his considerable fortune in investments offshore to free Trinidad and other unaligned nations.

On May 15th, 2027, CorpSec Director Vincent Matthau approached Morgan to run the ISA’s new Agent corps: an elite cadre of CorpSec solos acting as the new government’s Internal Security arm. Morgan’s response, ‘I don’t take money to hunt down a bunch of kids.’ was typical, as was the ISA’s retort—a predawn assault on the solo’s Night City penthouse suite. The raid cost the ISA an entire five man ops team; Morgan fell back to his safehouse in Pacifica and waited. Two nights later, he eliminated a ten man ops team, two assault spinners, and disappeared into the smog-choked, wreckage-strewn night.

Ten days later, Morgan Blackhand walked into the Washington Bureau offices of CorpSec, disabling the security system with a passchip taken from a CorpSec Agent in Bethesda. Entering the offices of the Director, he calmly shot Matthau, his seconds in command, and most of an eight man security detail hastily dispatched to stop him. His point made. Blackhand turned on his heel, left the building (shooting anyone in his path), and escaped Washington before CorpSec could begin to mount any effective pursuit.

By the time Alt’ Cunningham located Morgan, he was safely established in his offshore Trinidad fortress, deep within a web of security remotes and fanatically loyal ex-Militech solos who had followed their leader into retirement. Sending her clone Alt 2 in her place, she proposed that Morgan act as a paid advisor to the newly organized CyberRevolution. With an evil chuckle Morgan replied, ‘Hell, Ms. Cunningham, for a chance to yank CorpSec’s jake, I’d pay you"

As the Tactical director of the Revolution, it was Morgan who organized the extensive network of safehouses, drop zones and blind-alley V-Term links that make up the CyberRevolution’s "Underground Railway’, drawing in endangered juvegangers and finding them safe havens. The best are routed to one of Morgan’s secret training camps to be educated by either Morgan or members of his ex-Militech elite.

“Every Revolution needs a George Washington,’ says Morgan Blackhand. ‘But this time, you’ll just have to make do with me.”